RETURNED TO MILITARY CONTROL
FROM CHINA
APRIL 11, 2001

April 2, 2001

The Navy released the names of the 24
members of the crew of the EP-3E Aries II electronic surveillance plane
that landed in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. They are members of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One,
stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Wash.

US airplane was probing new warship
MID-AIR COLLISION: An intelligence source says the US Navy plane was
attempting to collect data on China's most advanced warship when it
collided with a Chinese jet fighter

By Brian Hsu
STAFF REPORTER

A US Navy surveillance aircraft that was forced to make an
emergency landing on Hainan Island on Sunday was collecting information
on a Russian-made Sovremenny-class destroyer, an intelligence source
told the Taipei Times
yesterday.

The propeller-driven EP-3 plane had attempted to fly away after
colliding with one of two Chinese jet fighters, the intelligence source
said. The collision caused the fighter to crash into the sea......

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities have moved the 24 crew members of a
U.S. Navy surveillance plane to a military guesthouse, a Chinese sailor
said Monday, a day after an in-flight collision forced the aircraft to
land on a Chinese
island.

The EP-3 plane was standing empty at the military airfield where
it landed in the town of Lingshui on Hainan island, said the sailor, who
refused to give his name and was contacted by telephone at an adjacent
naval facility.......

At least one China expert believes Beijing may be using 24 U.S.
crewmen -- from a Navy EP-3 "Orion" surveillance plane it now
holds -- as "hostages" to force Washington to extradite a
former People's Liberation Army senior colonel back to the mainland.

Yang Chih-heng, deputy director of the Strategic and International
Studies under the private Taiwan Research Institute, a think tank, said
the timing of an incident involving a Chinese F-8 fighter, which
"bumped" the U.S. plane
during a spy mission Saturday night, was "unusual."......

South China Sea near Hainan Island, Sunday morning, approximately
9:10 am local time.

Chinese version: An American spy plane is shadowed by two fighter
jets. The American plane maneuvers abruptly and rams and downs one of
the fighters. The US plane makes an unauthorized landing at Hainan
Island's Lingzhui
military airfield. "The US side has total responsibility for this
event," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding
that it had made a "serious" protest and that, "The US
plane abruptly diverted toward the
Chinese planes, and its head and left wing collided with one of the
Chinese planes, causing the Chinese plane to crash."

US version: An Okinawa-based US Navy EP-3 electronic surveillance
plane (crew of 24) on a routine mission in international airspace is
shadowed by two Chinese F-8 fighters, is bumped accidentally by one of
the Chinese
fighters, sustains damage to its nose cone and left wing and makes an
emergency landing at Lingzhui. "It's pretty obvious who bumped
who," said Admiral Dennis Blair, head of the US Pacific Command in
Hawaii. He told reporters that the Chinese fighters, similar to US
F-16s, fly much faster and have more maneuverability than the EP-3,
which is about the size of a Boeing 737 and basically flies in a
straight path......

Distributed through the P.O.W. NETWORK
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.